


Though It Might Seem Impossible

by CaptainErica



Category: Big Bang (Band), K-pop
Genre: HadesxPersephone, M/M, a very loose interpretation of the myth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2020-07-09 07:16:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19883737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainErica/pseuds/CaptainErica
Summary: Objectively, if he could think in such a way at the moment, he knew the new forest to the right of Mount Olympus was probably a trap. The way Demeter seemed to have no knowledge of its existence was further proof that it was a trap for him. But oh was it tempting, and oh did he want to walk out there and touch the branches of the trees and see who had built this forest for him in a day.





	1. Summer

**Midday**

Daesung’s mother was, for lack of a better description, _that_ mother. You know the one; baking pies and cookies and always, always cooking. She had a garden, big and beautiful and full to bursting of fruits and vegetables and flowers and nuts. It was going all year long, there was always something.

She had animals as well; chickens and cows and pigs and ducks. There was always fresh meat and milk and eggs. Daesung had never wanted, and neither had anyone fortunate enough to meet his mother or him or his… well, they didn’t talk about Daesung’s father; one didn’t try to figure out the parentage of a god if they weren’t outright told what it was. It was rude and crude and how _dare_ anyone even contemplate that Daesung _hadn’t_ just been born of his mother’s eternal plenty and bounty like she always said he had been.

“I do wish you’d been a girl.” His mother said, only every so often, and only very sadly. It was one of those sentiments that you couldn’t be upset with, especially as Daesung agreed with her; his life would be far easier if he had been a goddess instead of a god.

It would have been easier, of course, less questions about where he had come from if he had been a _she._ His mother didn’t have to explain anything to _humans_ if that were the case. They were all so obsessed with that, with fathers being needed for a son to be created. It was true for _them_ , but _they_ weren’t gods.

Daesung sniffs and moves through the maze of cornstalks at the far back of his mother’s garden. Without him there would be no growth, no steady rise of stalks to the sky…

His fingers trail along leaves and the stems grow taller, those slightly withered or spotted from lack of sun gently brighten as his fingers pull away. He was necessary, he thinks, as the grass and weeds and flowers littering the ground rise with his steps, as the tall flowers turn to follow his progress; staring off after him as he walks past and further away.

He stops at the edge of a patch of vegetables, eyes out on the horizon. There are a few mountains out to his left, then flat land until the large outline of Mount Olympus directly ahead of him. He sighs as he looks out at it, frowning softly after. It wasn’t very impressive for a mountain, if Daesung were being honest, and he didn’t enjoy how close it was to their home; how close it _felt_. He turns his head to the right, away from Olympus and off into the flat fields that stretched for miles off into the—

Daesung’s frown deepens for a moment, before he stands up a little straighter, intrigued because off in the distance where there should be nothing… a whole lot of _nothing_ , there was a forest of some type. The plants were tall and tantalizing in their newness. He couldn’t tell what they were from here, but the sudden appearance of them registered awkwardly in his head as both a potential trap and an intriguing new thing worthy of investigation.

He shouldn’t go and see what it was about.

It was just some trees, probably.

A new grove, most likely. Something built by his mother the night before without telling him.

He should check it out, no one could grow anything like that overnight, it just wasn’t possible without his mother’s help and she wouldn’t just _help_ anyone… Especially not after the most recent rash of paternity accusations.

No. Daesung knew better than to investigate strange happenings. It was likely some mortal using something they stole from one of the gods to try to get his or his mother’s attention, and he wasn’t going to fall for it. Resolute in his decision, Daesung turns on his heel and heads back into the tangle of vegetables and fruit. He collects a basket of vegetables on the way in, deciding to surprise his mother with something delicious for supper to help brighten her mood; the plants tended to over-ripen when she was feeling sour, and while he could fix them he always felt they tasted better the first time around.

**Sunset**

Daesung didn’t say anything about the new forest off to the right of Mount Olympus, just far enough off into the distance that it would take a good couple of hours to get there. He didn’t say anything when his mother came in and didn’t mention it herself, and he didn’t say anything during supper, and he didn’t say anything as the dishes melted back into the stump they used for a table, or when his mother had shooed him off to be by himself.

She was in a better mood, though; he could hear her humming and singing to the herbs in the kitchen. They were always the worst affected by her moods, being so close.

Daesung sighs, though, wondering if he should have asked about the smudge of a garden off in the middle-distance. He could walk there, he thinks, staring out over the vast flat land between the house, their gardens, and that new _thing_ just to the right of Olympus. Was it a slight against the Mount? So close, encroaching, but…

But his mother hadn’t noticed it, and she was truly the only one who could have made a _true_ garden or forest so quickly. She hadn’t noticed it, and hadn’t she been out in that direction today?

The more Daesung looked out over the land toward the new forest the more he wanted, no, _needed_ to go and see what it was about. The more he stood there, the more he realized that he _must._ What if it was one of his mother’s siblings, trying hard to outdo her? Trying to push her further aside? _What if?_ It could be any number of them, it could be any number of gods or goddesses trying to steal their fire and turn it to their own aid.

The audacity of it, Daesung decides, is more than he can bear: to try your hand at Demeter and Daesung’s craft well in sight of their home? Of the center of their power? It was blasphemy. It was horrible vanity. It was exactly something one of the other gods would do.

He hadn’t decided just _who_ yet, but he needed to see it for himself. He thinks he could guess who were he to get close enough, and decide what kind of retribution would be justified. It was offensive, really, and maybe… maybe he could humiliate them while he was at it, because there was no way it was anywhere near as well-grown as anything he or his mother could do, had done.

If it was there come morning, he thinks, then he will go out and check on it. There was no reason to worry his mother that he could see, and he was more than capable of taking care of himself if it _did_ turn out to be a trap.

Daesung climbs into his warm bed thinking about what kind of mortal would dare to set a trap for _him._ It amuses him until he’s able to slip off to sleep.

**Sunrise**

There were loaves of bread on the table, too many for just them but then… then there always were. When his mother was happy, free, she made plenty for everyone.

He took two loaves, not thinking he would need both, but he wasn’t a small eater. He takes a block of cheese, a knife… he slings a carefully made bag over his shoulder with food and utensils inside and heads out the door. He doesn’t bother telling his mother where he is going; she’ll see him if she looks out over the horizon.

**Morning**

The sun wasn’t very high in the sky, still rising up and Daesung wonders if Helios is ever tired of riding that chariot; always the same way day in and day out. He thinks about that sometimes, just like he wonders if his mother ever gets tired of making, of providing, of giving… But it’s who they are, and just like they never stop, Daesung can’t ever fault them for it.

But the point, he forces himself to return his focus to, is that the forest he is trying to get to still seems to be the same distance away despite him having walked for at least an hour toward it. It gives him pause, mentally, so he pauses physically to assess. It could be a trick of the landscape, the flat meadowland not really adding anything in terms of perspective to help break up the scenery and make it obvious that he’s growing any closer to anything.

This could also, however, mean that it is truly a trap. A trap set specifically for him.

Daesung shakes his head of that thought and continues on, choosing a little outcropping of the forest to walk toward so he has something specific to focus on. Maybe it _was_ getting closer, he just had been so preoccupied he hadn’t noticed.

**Midday**

Daesung stops far enough from the edge of the strange forest that he feels he could rest without being in immediate danger. The outcropping he had been heading for looms before him, the trees tall and dark, with vines and moss hanging from them. It’s curious, he thinks, but he would need to get closer to really understand; his eyesight was good, but he wasn’t willing to trust it wholly just now, especially not when he had earlier been caught up in an illusion of the forest never growing nearer.

Lunch is two thick slices off one of the loaves he had brought with him; one with honey and the other with cheese. He’s forcing himself to eat, really, his curiosity burning through him and threatening to make him overeager. He has to remain a little aloof, or else who knows what could trip him up; he might not truly believe it to be a trap, but he could still hear all of the nasty words about his parentage rattling through his brain.

Daesung finishes his food with a scowl, but he wipes it off as he cleans himself up, urging the crumbs into the dirt beneath him, the grasses around him full and green and swaying toward him in a breeze all their own.

Now, now was the time to get up and go, but Daesung hesitates.

He hesitates and stares at the dark greens and murky browns he can see standing solidly only a short mile before him and…

It takes him less time to get home than it did to get there, he knows it.

**Sunset**

Daesung stands at the end of the hall, the window framed in cherry and oak with leaves hanging at odd intervals a small foot before him. He doesn’t want to step any closer, but then he also does, desperately and madly so.

It’s a tense few minutes, his mother down in the garden working on the night bloomers, helping a group of mortals understand the heavy hang of a fruit tree. He can hear her talking, half in that way that they do with plants that only he can hear, and half to the mortals in that way that makes them awed and uncertain and utterly devoted. Focusing on that, on his mother’s voice, has him at the window, hands on the vine-like sill, eyes cast down and to the left at first but then…

Then his eyes are drawn up and to the right and there it is: the forest. If he had not been able to get to it today, at least he had learned that it was trees and therefore a forest.

The trees he could see from as close as he had gotten (still a bare mile away), had been old and tall and thick. They’d had gnarly bark and thick vines and Spanish moss hanging from the outstretched limbs. They’d been dark and earthy, had screamed _damp_ and _musty_ and _old_ at him like very few things could but…

But he hadn’t really felt them. Couldn’t really feel them.

They’d been calling to him, yes, but maybe it would be more accurate to say that the _forest_ had been (was) calling for him. The individual trees and moss? They didn’t seem to have known he was there at all.

Now that he’s looking, of course, he can’t stop.

It’s no bigger or closer than it was before. It’s no wider or taller. It’s just… there, and that’s not very comforting at all because why hasn’t his mother noticed it or brought it up? Why hasn’t anyone come to complain about it? Why…?

“To bed, Daesung-ah.” His mother’s warm voice calls to him from behind, likely from the packed earth stairway that led from the sitting area up. “You’ve little in your head of late.” She adds, and he slowly manages to turn to face her.

Demeter looked as she ever did: beautiful, older, mature, a crown on her head that would melt back into shafts of wheat when she laid it down to rest. She looked like she would sit you down and make you dinner, something she did rather often.

“Have I been?” Daesung asks, his voice matching her tone. “I’ve been contemplating the trees.” He says, by way of some type of answer. He cannot lie to her, but something wicked is holding his tongue from telling her the truth.

There’s no frown on Demeter’s face as she looks at her son, though, only fond exasperation. “The trees will be here, morning, noon, and night. You need not stay up to contemplate them further.” She insists, moving down the hall toward him, her dress trailing like grain tumbling from a barrel behind her. “To bed, son.” She says, her eyes no longer on him, but out the window over his shoulder as he leans in for a hug. “It is the best place for you as the sun sets, to rest like the flowers, missing the sun.”

Daesung had never missed the sun more than when he stayed up too late into the night and was forced to lie in the dark, the moon not the same type of comfort to him as the sun. The nurturing safety and warmth of it, the bright, golden light…

“Goodnight, mother.” He whispers, pulling away from her and turning into his room, the door frame blooming softly with tiny white flowers as he walks through; they turn a deep, dark purple as the door grows in behind him, and Demeter stares at them almost as hard as she had been staring out the window mere moments before.

**Midday**

Daesung’s eyes wandered, the forest still there, but seeming almost hazy like things got in the far off distance often would under the hottest of sunny days.

**Night**

Daesung stares out of his own window, the mountain ranges to the left of Mount Olympus just barely visible off in the distance. He can’t leave his room or his mother will notice, but he can’t stop thinking about it.

**Sunset**

Daesung sits at the pine table in the kitchen, watching his mother bake; loaf upon loaf, cake upon cake.

It takes his mind off of the forest sitting at a safe distance from the house, calling to him softly, begging him to come and see what it was, what types of trees and how deep the roots. The call was getting louder and louder by the day, and it was all he could do to keep focused on what he’s supposed to do.

His mother is talking, though, and bread and cakes are baking. It’s all familiar, that’s the big thing that keeps his attention; the smells and the gossip and the taste of honeyed cake and fruit on his tongue.

“We’re going out, tomorrow.” Demeter says, and Daesung hums in understanding. They would likely be distributing their bounty, helping the world bloom, doing their jobs.

“I will prepare the usual.” He says in response, standing slowly and turning away with his eyes down and distracted, therefore missing the way Demeter’s eyes jump to follow him.

It’s comforting, as the sun is setting, to be outside at the mossy stable with the animals while he coaxes the carts into existence so he can place things in them until the sun truly disappears. He looks up before going back inside, and…

**Sunrise**

Daesung spends the early morning filling the carts overfull with grain and wheat and the baked goods from the night before, and so many things from their gardens.

They leave, heading out in the direction of the mountain ranges to the left, Daesung rather specifically kept to his mother’s left and out of the sight of the forest.

**Midday**

The nymphs of the wood on the far side of Mount Olympus from Daesung’s home with his mother, are pleasant and fun and gossipy in that way that is distracting and fun. Daesung sees them every so often when they go out, especially when his mother gets distracted in a town with enough people for her to work on births and lives and…

“Have you heard? Hades has been empty the last few days.” The smallest nymph says, eyes big and soft, body mostly submerged in the little pool of water around them.

Daesung only finds that mildly interesting, and he’s not alone in his lack of care. “Seunghyun had to leave at some point.” Another nymph says, this one lounging by the side of the pool, a toe dipped in to catch the trailing, fluttery parts of the other nymph’s garments.

“I’ve heard, from the animals, you know, that he’s gone to visit Zeus.” The first nymph says, reaching down to bat the toes away from their clothes.

Daesung snorts, finds that rather surprising but then… Well, they _were_ brothers; even _they_ would probably talk every so often. It was still slightly intriguing, though, because Hades was almost never left empty.

**Mid-afternoon**

“Stay close!” the nymphs shout, laughing and warm and teasing. Daesung waves them off, though, amused and warm as he wanders a little ways away from the pool of water in the center of the glade.

He knows they won’t leave it, can’t really, and while he enjoys spending time with them, they’re a little… well… He’s still a little preoccupied, and the call of the mysterious forest seems just as strong here as at home despite him not being able to see it from here. He shouldn’t be able to see it from here even though he’s facing it; Mount Olympus to his right as he walks away from the pool.

Just at the edge of the glade he pauses and stares out through the forest. These are thin trees, white with black slashes across their thin bark. The leaves are high and light green, and if there were a breeze here the trees would bend with it. Daesung likes these trees, this forest, even though it’s at the base of Mount Olympus, but that’s not what has caught his attention.

No, no what has Daesung’s attention is a beautiful Narcissus flower, just visible on the other side of the tall, thin trees. It’s gorgeous, one of the most brilliant of its kind he’s ever seen, and after his initial pause at the edge of the glade he…

He walks out of the relative safety of the glade without looking back, ignoring the shout of displeasure from one of the nearer nymphs, and walks to the edge of the forest before pausing just to stare. He can’t help it, really, the flower so beautifully formed without any help from his hand. It’s gorgeous, and he’s struck there, watching it with true awe. He moves forward only very slowly, almost cautious now after his earlier reckless excitement.

Daesung stops right beside the Narcissus, eyes wide and appreciative. He reaches up, slow and reverent, and touches the edge of one of the petals. It’s soft, just like it should be, and he takes a step closer not noticing the soft rumbling starting in the ground beneath him.

The flower seems to almost glow, and that’s strange but then Daesung was used to seeing plants as more than what they actually were to the normal eye so he doesn’t think much of it at first. No, he doesn’t think anything of it until the flower disappears under his fingers as the rumbling in the ground grows quickly louder and far more frightening.

Daesung’s eyes go wide, and he’s barely a moment more to think before the earth opens up beneath his feet. He’s falling, then, the ground closing overhead and blocking all light as he –

Falls

Falls

Falls

Stops.

It’s sudden but not jarring, and it’s still dark all around him, still unsettling and uncertain but at least he’s no longer falling. He shifts and finds that he can move from his stopped position just above the ground, and manages to touch his feet to what feels like hard stone.

Daesung hates hard stone.

He rocks from side to side for a moment, getting a feel for the unyielding earth beneath his feet, and then gives up on the hope for the feeling of growth or life; this stone held no moss, provided no sustenance, and would not be giving him anything.

As he gains his bearings, a blue white light flares to life to his right, and then to his left, and then before him he sees a bed. Uncertain how long he had been falling for, but definitely feeling fatigued, he walks cautiously forward.

Unlike home, the bed is carved from rock, the colors blue and black and white; stark and not earthy at all. It’s almost off-putting, but he feels his eyelids sag and knows he must have been falling for hours making this well past late. He doesn’t feel a threat surrounding the place, so he gives in and climbs into the bed, not worrying about anything further as he drifts off to sleep.

The torches dim as Daesung slips off, until they gutter completely and the chamber is dark once more.

~


	2. Summer to Fall to Winter

**Morning**

It’s the light, Daesung thinks, that wakes him.

The chamber had been so dark that the gentle flickering of the torches, blue-white, added a lot of light. It had come on slowly, the light, like they had been set to slowly flare up; almost like a morning sunrise, but still obviously manufactured. It was missing the warmth, the orange-yellow of a slowly rising sun over the horizon. What this meant to Daesung’s awakening mind was that there were no windows in this chamber; but then why would there be? He had fallen for hours to get here, which meant he had to be underground.

He frowns, soft and confused as he mulls that over and tries to convince himself back into full alertness. While he couldn’t _feel_ anything wrong with the place he knew that meant nothing; he couldn’t feel _anything_ because it was all cold, lifeless stone surrounding him.

Daesung makes himself sit up and open his eyes, blinking just a little to adjust to the cool light. Black rock cut with sparkling lines is what greets him. All of the walls were made of this black stone, so far as he could see, and the lines he was seeing were cracks of sparkling colors; nothing to intense, but it added something that Daesung could almost appreciate. They weren’t soft like a petal, or intricate like the bark of a tree. No, the stone had its own beauty, but it wasn’t something Daesung was used to or ready to appreciate yet.

Not when he didn’t know where he was.

Not when he _knew_ he had to get to the bottom of that trap. That perfectly laid trap that was all for him.

He was stupid, he knew, for having gone out of the relative safety of the glade with the nymphs. He was stupid for having allowed himself to be drawn. There was no way that narcissus had been real, no way it could have belonged there…

He should have known.

He _had_ known, but he had gone in anyway.

With a strong shake of his head, Daesung banishes those thoughts; he can revisit his stupidity later, when he knows where he is and who brought him here.

With a little more trepidation than he had shown the night before, Daesung swings his legs over the edge of the bed, and carefully touches his bare feet to the stone floor. He had expected the floor to be cold, but is pleasantly surprised to find it to be warm. Once standing, he lets himself look over toward where he thought he had come in, eyes trailing up to the pitch blackness of the ceiling, uncertain if it even exists.

He has to look away from it eventually, the inky, vast nothingness adding some layer of unease that he doesn’t want to examine or deal with right now.

“Where could I be?” He asks, trying for soft but his voice still reverberates around the stark room. A door seems to materialize out of the wall ahead of him, but he thinks it only _seems_ that way because there had been no torches on over there previously. The dark in this chamber was so complete that the torches seemed to only penetrate so far.

Daesung is wary though, the torches seemingly there to guide him just as they were the night before to get him to bed and this morning to awaken him. It’s planned, almost pre-determined, and Daesung knows that that means he is being played with by another god.

_But which one?_

He takes a few cautious steps toward the door, and then looks back behind him; the torches were dimming around the bed, slowly going out. He takes another 2 steps and the bed is gone from his view entirely. Pulling in a deep breath, Daesung turns his head forward and makes his way to the door, pausing only for a moment before it before he reaches out—

There’s no handle, but he shouldn’t have even thought about that as any type of problem. The door seems to melt open at his touch, almost. He can hear it slide across the stone floor, a well-worn groove slowly revealed beneath it. Once it is open far enough, Daesung takes a couple of cautious steps out, turning back just in time to watch the torches gutter completely and the door slide shut behind him. With the relative safety and comfort of the room gone, Daesung feels his stomach plummet; he had no real powers down here that he could feel, nothing but his immortality to protect him and really that wasn’t much of a comfort.

There are more blue-white torches here, none giving off any heat though the floor remained solidly black and warm beneath his bare feet. He thinks a little randomly that he should have made himself some shoes before stepping out of that glade, but pushes it aside as vaguely hysterical thinking and makes himself focus. He had to find where he was being led, he had to see who had tricked him into coming here.

The walk feels both long and short. Without the sun to help him, he has no reckoning of the amount of time that has passed since he started. He only knows that the torches flicker to life as he comes closer, and gutter as he gets farther. He’s too focused on getting annoyed by the endlessness of it to even commit to counting, or keeping track of steps.

He’s finally at a door, however, and just before he had planned to sit down and pout, too. This door, similar to the one from the chamber he had awoken in is black with cracks filled with sparkling stone. The difference between this door and the one from the chamber, however, was the sheer size of it. It was at least two spans taller than Daesung in his current form, and wider than truly necessary, though he thinks it could be good for a chariot, were one in need of a chariot indoors.

Daesung snorts at that thought, stopped before this enormous door. No one drove chariots indoors that was preposterous. He was definitely _in_ doors, also, the drafts were unnatural, and there was no light from the sun. He would consider being within a cave to be the same to here, though in a cave he would likely have the chance to feel growing things.

It’s as his fingers finally touch the cool stone of the door that Daesung realizes he must be in Hades.

**Mid-morning**

Daesung assumes, as the door slides open with a dull scraping sound, that it must be somewhere between when he normally wakes up and noontime. He decides it because he’s hungry, only vaguely, but it’s still there.

_If this is Hades, truly, then I must not eat until I’ve left._

He wonders as he steps through, this chamber already brightly lit in the cool tones of the torches, if that had been the plan; get him some hours after his last meal, keep him overnight, walk him around until he was hungry. It’s kind of ludicrous, because he can’t imagine who would want that, want to keep him, want to restrict him in that way.

Pushing that thought out of mind, he takes his first few steps through the doorway.

The chamber was large and well lit. There was a path that led straight before Daesung and ran through the center of what appeared to be a pit, and in the middle of the path forward there were two paths that separated out to the sides.

It’s now that Daesung registers what he had been hearing this whole time.

In the pits, originally dark as Daesung took tentative steps forward and away from the relative safety of the doorway, Daesung could now see that they were filled with a green fire. It was muted in comparison to the white-blue torches that lit the chamber, but very obvious now that he’s noticed it. The sound, however, is less obvious but he thinks he knows what it is.

_Souls._

It made sense, of course. If he were in Hades, which he is now fairly confident that he is, then the pits would be where the souls were housed, and the sound he was hearing was… it wasn’t exactly unpleasant just not normal for him.

It was _them._

It was the souls he was walking past as he made his way down the center path toward, hopefully, whoever it was who had tricked him. They were making a sound that Daesung could not yet describe, a sound that should have been almost cacophonous but was somehow harmonious in a way that again; Daesung could not describe.

He almost pauses partway down the path, but he can see the end now, the throne set back into the black wall, the lighting there a mix of the green in with the blue. He doesn’t want to believe that it was Seunghyun, but then he had never met the god of the Underworld before, so maybe this was something he did often.

_Highly unlikely._

He walks slower as he gets closer, unwilling to look eager when he’s really rather annoyed now that he feels he’s figured at least most of this out. The only thing he doesn’t know is _why_ and at the moment he doesn’t quite care.

“Daesung.” A silky voice calls, and Daesung almost moves a little faster just to be closer to where it came from.

He stays stubbornly silent, though, as he continues his deliberately paced walk toward the end of the path.

“Come now.” The voice says, just as silky, but now a little amused; like this was a fun game that he and Daesung sometimes played.

If anything, that makes Daesung want to walk _slower_ , but he doesn’t, he continues his even pace and then stops at the end where he must look up at the throne. “Yes?” he asks, insolent, though his voice is soft.

The man seated upon the stone throne is striking to behold. He’s tall, though sitting it’s not overly clear if he will be taller than Daesung or not, and his hair is a dark blue with white streaked through; reminiscent of the flames throughout. His eyes were also blue, a hue that a mortal would deem unnatural, but that Daesung wasn’t exactly surprised to see. What he was just a little surprised to see was the smile on Seunghyun’s face.

“Zeus said you’d be a little difficult.” Seunghyun says, conversational. His eyes are bright and he’s clearly pleased by that, but then just as clearly uncertain, and Daesung latches onto that.

“Oh? Are most of those you kidnap pleased to have been so?” Daesung asks, eyes innocent as he tilts his head up a little more. He should move closer so he isn’t looking up at Seunghyun; he wasn’t any lesser of a god than Seunghyun.

Seunghyun shakes his head, standing slowly from his throne and carefully making his way down the steps. He was dressed oddly, in a fashion that was unlikely to be _in_ fashion until many centuries in the future. “That’s almost rude.” He says, voice even, though clearly still playing.

Daesung frowns, legs spread in a protective stance, sturdy and holding his ground. It loses something for him mentally since there’s no _ground_ for him to stand on. He can’t pull anything from the earth to steady him. “I was trying more for insolent.” He admits, annoyed with himself now as well because he’s almost amused.

Seunghyun’s lips twitch up, delighted almost. “Well, it’s my fault, I suppose, inviting you here and not offering you something to eat. It’s been a while since you slipped through my back door.”

Daesung isn’t sure how Seunghyun does it, but he manages to make it sound both like it was on purpose and like it was Daesung’s own fault for falling in. It makes Daesung frown at him, but he knows where Seunghyun is going with this. “I’m not hungry, so it’s alright.” He says, a little stiff.

It doesn’t seem to bother Seunghyun, though, his stiffness. A smile tilts up the corner of his lips, and Daesung purses his lips in response. “No? I suppose not.” Seunghyun says, instead of anything else, clearly quite pleased and comfortable with this turn. “You’ll want something to do, hm? I’ve a garden, just through there, really needs some tending.” He says, and Daesung wonders if anything would upset the god.

**Mid-afternoon**

Daesung can feel the time of day in here.

He can feel life and growth, and he can feel himself relaxing. It was a beautiful feeling, though the garden itself was sad and dreary.

The plants were hidden in a small room accessible through a door just to the left of the stairway to the throne. They were in raised beds, clearly transplanted here from elsewhere. The beds came in multiple sizes, but all were rectangular in some fashion, placed throughout the room and making it hard to walk between them. It wouldn’t be a problem if they weren’t raised, Daesung had thought when he walked in, but no it just made it feel messy and claustrophobic.

The plants themselves were a mixture of types, some trees, some bushes, small plants, flowers, grasses. No vegetables, but a couple of the trees did appear to be of the fruit bearing variety; they weren’t bearing anything right now, though. Every last one was wilted and sad looking, one or two were still their proper green color, the rest sickly or spotted.

Daesung thinks, now, hours after he had been brought into the room, that they must be from that forest he had seen and been so drawn to. The closest tree to the entrance had a rough, scraggly bark that he wasn’t entirely familiar with, but that reminded him of what he had seen when he had gotten close to that forest.

“Were they trying to incubate you above ground, hm?” Daesung asks, sitting in one of the raised beds now. He’d spent a few hours wandering around the beds, through them, trying to figure out what the plants were and what the damage was. They tried, half-hearted, to turn to him as he moved past, getting slowly more alert the longer he was in the room. He had no real hope for them long-term, but he couldn’t let them know that.

“Not very good at it, were they?” He asks, fingers running over spotted leaves that turn very slowly back to their proper color under his touch. “Cruel to treat you like this.” He says, close and soft.

He’s in the back, wanted to work his way forward, especially if he wasn’t going to be given any reasoning for being brought here or any timeline for when he would be allowed to leave. It would take time to make them all better, so he was going to take his time. The door opens almost silently, the dull scrape over stone making him look up and turn back toward it.

“Daesung?” Seunghyun’s silky voice calls out, and Daesung feels his cheeks go a little pink so he refocuses on the plant he’s touching. “Ah, there you are, they’re looking better already.”

Daesung frowns, because if by ‘better’ Seunghyun meant ‘not on the brink of death’ then sure, maybe he was right. “They need sunlight.” He says, almost admonishingly, “And water, and real, new soil.” He adds, since he had already started listing things off.

“I’ll see about getting some of those things for them.” Seunghyun says, eyes a little intense as he looks at Daesung’s profile. Daesung doesn’t turn toward him.

“Were you trying to make your own plants?” He asks instead of acknowledging that, shifting to stand and step out of the planter. He has to go around Seunghyun, because he doesn’t make even the slightest of moves to step out of the way. “They’re never going to flourish.” He adds with soft vehemence, keeping his voice down like he doesn’t want the plants to hear him; doesn’t want them to.

Seunghyun frowns over at him, confused. “They grow just fine up above.” He says, almost defensive.

Daesung rolls his eyes, “It’s been less than a week since your forest sprang up, that’s not enough time to make any kind of decision on their viability. And I can’t believe you would think you could just _make_ plants, make things grow. It’s a subtle art, barely an art.” He says, annoyed on the behalf of the plants, on behalf of his mother and himself and what they do.

“I’ll get you your dirt and water and sunlight.” Seunghyun says, sudden, and then he’s walking out of the room and Daesung is alone with the garden, all of the plants tilted toward him.

“I didn’t mean it.” Daesung says after a moment, their stares making him feel very guilty. “You’ll be alright.” He says, stepping closer again to settle back into the planter, fingers reaching to smooth over leaves, spotted and limp.

They won’t be alright unless he does a lot of work on them.

**Midnight**

Demeter was out again.

Her son was missing, and Zeus? Well, all he would say was that a young god would be a young god; he’ll be back home.

But he wasn’t. He wasn’t back home when she got there, and the nymphs hadn’t lied when they said he had disappeared out of the glade. He had been taken, and she was going to find out by who.

If she had to turn the world to dust to find Daesung, she would.

If she had to tear the world to pieces, overturn every mountain and stone? She would.

The grass around her feet slowly turns yellow, brittle, dead.


	3. Winter Turns to Spring

**Morning**

Daesung believes that he’s in the same room from the previous night.

He doesn’t think he would be able to tell one way or another anyway, as all the rooms seem to be basically the same throughout the entirety of Hades. He had found his way back to the room much more quickly than it had taken for him to make his way to the throne chamber that previous morning. He thinks now, as he lies in the opulent but cold-feeling room. The blue torches flicker into life, the light still as cold as the last few times he had been awake in here.

It’s cold, a bone deep chill that Daesung can neither explain nor shake. It had fully set in when he had left the tiny garden of sad plants to head for this chamber, but he knows it had been there before, just lingering and waiting. He pulls in a breath, shakes his head, and pushes himself out of bed; if he couldn’t eat anything, then he would just spend more of his time with the ailing greenery.

With a sigh, Daesung is out of the bed and padding with soft feet toward his clothing in a nearby chair that most certainly had not been there until he had taken his clothing off last night. He changes out of the soft fabric he’d found left out for him, and back into his normal clothes before making his way down into the throne room and right past Seunghyun into the antechamber to the back.

Seunghyun was an odd one, Daesung thought. He was standing over one of the deep, cavernous openings, looking down. The expression on his face had been unreadable, but then, Daesung had only just met him.

The plants are looking better, and Daesung attributes it to the extremely shallow sunlight that was somehow diffusing through the room. It made Daesung feel just a little better, just a little less hollow.

He settles into the dirt of the 3rd planter from the back on the right hand side. He hadn’t made it very far the day before, but the plants had been so far gone… They lacked something subtle; that true spark of life, the things needed to actually grow outside of his or his mother’s presence. He was only half of what his mother could do, something different in his powers that didn’t let him sow the same seeds, raise the same plants.

He could do it all, of course, but he was just different enough that it was… different.

**Mid-afternoon**

“Are you hungry, Daesung? So much work down here, it must be draining you.” Seunghyun says, nonchalant, hands hiding somewhere in the folds of deeply green robes.

Daesung looks up from the 3rd planter from the back on the left, squatting between one of those strange trees and a bush that might produce berries but he can’t decide whether they would be edible or not. “No.” He says after a hazy blink to orient himself. “I’m quite content here.” He says, not quite understanding the look on Seunghyun’s face then.

“I find myself unable to believe that, but if you insist…” Seunghyun says, calm and collected as can be, but there _is_ something in that look he’s giving, something that Daesung just isn’t sure he understands.

**Evening**

It could be nothing, that’s what Hera had said. Just one of Zeus’s little games, hiding Daesung somewhere and he’ll be back soon.

Demeter believes it for most of the morning, but then… then Zeus had never played a game like this with her before, and…

And Zeus knew better than to upset her.

 _Zeus knew what she could do. What she_ would _do._

**Days upon days upon days…**

The days spun together, Daesung thought. He spent from waking to sleeping in the beds, helping them slowly grow, feeding himself.

He was just starting to really get used to Seunghyun, who was still a mystery to him, still very strange. It was the way he would stand in the room, hands hidden from view within robes or pockets or behind his back. It was the way he would ask simple little questions about soil, along with more long-winded questions about the deep inner-workings of plants and how they survived.

Seunghyun would ask questions about color in flowers, and the point of bark and poisonous leaves. He would ask what made leaves dark green or light green…

Well, there were things that Daesung did not have words for, things he could not explain. There were things Daesung had to search for endless moments for words to describe. There were things that Daesung just… it was part of him, so he couldn’t explain it. It was clear that those types of answers, when he couldn’t explain why or how and could only just say that it just _was_ , made Seunghyun annoyed, or frustrated. He would get even more stiff, like he couldn’t understand, like he didn’t _like_ that there wasn’t an answer he could get…

That Daesung didn’t know how his own powers worked.

It felt that way this morning, with the interactions of the day before running through his mind. It felt like Seunghyun was most upset that Daesung didn’t understand his own powers. His fingers dig a little too aggressively into the soil beneath a sad fruit tree, and he feels bad for a moment, the sick feeling he gets as the tree protests softly makes him pull his hand back and apologize. He understood his powers right well, really. He knew what he was able to do, and he knew that that did not include fixing these plants to full rightness; only Demeter could make them into real plants.

With a shake of his head, Daesung turns his attention back to the sad fruit tree. It wouldn’t get better, not really, but it would at least not be suffering quite so much after he was done with it.

**Midday**

Seunghyun hadn’t come by yet, which was odd.

Daesung was trying not to think about it, about him. He was completely odd, and not at all easy to understand but… Daesung had kind of gotten used to him while down here. He had gotten used to Seunghyun coming in to stare and ask questions that Daesung couldn’t answer; to stand in ridiculous clothing that didn’t make sense and definitely wasn’t anything anyone _now_ would consider wearing…

But today Seunghyun had not shown up.

He had not been in the throne room this morning when Daesung had made his way through. It wasn’t uncommon, but it wasn’t exactly common; Seunghyun seemed to like to be present and aware of what was going on in his realm. He liked to be very present. If Daesung didn’t talk for long enough, didn’t respond for long enough, sometimes Seunghyun would talk about what he did.

It wasn’t ever much, and Daesung was always far more focused on the plants but… but it was enough for Daesung to have a small outline of Seunghyun in his mind. It was an imperfect image because of the scraps he was using to make it, but it wasn’t _wrong_.

What it was, was telling him that Seunghyun should be in here by now, asking him unanswerable questions and telling him that the plants should be perfect just _because._ It’s insane, but still; Daesung wonders and worries.

**Earlier**

“She’s poisoning the earth.” Chaerin says, partly amused, partly impressed, partly annoyed.

Seunghyun sniffs, looking away, affected nonchalance. Zeus snorts, then covers the reaction with his own sigh. “Has she said why she’s doing it?” He asks, and Seunghyun keeps looking away, doesn’t seem to want to be part of this conversation; likely because they all know the answer.

Chaerin raises her eyebrows, waits a beat, then sighs and shakes her head. “Daesung.” She says as she leans back in her chair, comfortable but definitely ready to do something if asked. “She wants him back, knows you know where he is. I’d say he was hiding but we all know he’s not like that, especially not when the entire earth is broken from her search.”

“Poetic, Chaerin-ah, when did you get so?” Seunghyun asks, a lilt of teasing in his voice. She gives him a look, not interested, before turning her eyes back to Zeus.

“Where have you got him locked up?” she asks, eyes piercing him now, because Zeus was always easier to get answers out of, always so much easier because he couldn’t resist a pretty face, no matter whose it was.

“I’m not sure why you think _I_ have the boy.” Offended, that’s what Zeus sounds like, and Seunghyun is rather amused by him, but he knows he can’t keep it up: Chaerin is insanely perceptive.

Chaerin turns away from Zeus, then, and turns, instead, toward Seunghyun. “So you’ve got him, then?” She asks, and Seunghyun frowns out at the cloudy fog surrounding them, refusing to respond or react for the moment.

“Where is Demeter now?” He asks, as if asking after the weather, which he supposes he is in some ways. He wants to be back below, in Hades, Daesung would be in the little garden room now with his hands in the soil. It was a lost cause, Seunghyun knew after listening to Daesung, but he hadn’t expected it to be any type of real cause anyway. The nursery style forest he had created them in was likely long gone now if Demeter had really razed the earth.

Chaerin is looking him over, he can feel it, and she takes a moment before she responds. “Waiting. She’s amassed a lot of new devotees, they’re starving, as is everyone and everything else.”

She doesn’t look at Zeus, doesn’t have to because Zeus won’t let his favorite experiment, their entire reason for being, die out for Seunghyun for much longer.

Zeus looks to Seunghyun, and then to Chaerin, and then pinches the bridge of his nose. “I’ll go see her. We’ll work this out.” He says, and Seunghyun rolls his eyes before turning away and leaving the room. Once he’s outside, he blinks out of existence, re-appearing in the throne room with ease.

**Night**

Daesung enters the throne room, needing to get away from the dying plants. They give him a little bit, help push away the hunger he feels, but sometimes they take too much.

He’s surprised by Seunghyun standing before him, truly surprised, his head having been so lost in his own thoughts. “Oh, Seunghyun.” He says, as he always seems to when he runs into the god. He’s forever surprised by him, as if they weren’t in his own domain.

Seunghyun smiles, that little twitch of his lips that says he’s softly amused, or at least interested in what might happen. Daesung notices, today of all days, that Seunghyun looks him over, head to toe and right back up, and realizes that this wasn’t the first time he’d felt that kind of perusal from him.

“How are they?” He asks, and Daesung blinks, shakes his head then looks back at the closed door he had just left.

“They’re never going to get better.”

Seunghyun nods, like he knew that, but then he should know that. Should know that after weeks of being told it. “You did say that they never really stood a chance, didn’t you.” He says, calm, collected, simple. “But then, I never understood why, since you can make things grow. I’ve seen it, it’s not just Demeter who has that particular ability.”

Daesung is quiet a moment, thinking it over. Seunghyun had said it, time and time again, but he had never actually thought about it. “Maybe so, Seunghyun.” He replies, and then nods to him and skirts around him to head over the thin walkway between pits, and out toward his room.

It was…

As the cool blue lights flare to life within the chamber Daesung slept in, he finds himself thinking about the way Seunghyun believed so completely in his abilities. Believed in abilities that Daesung was fair convinced he didn’t have. He’s half-undressed when he realizes he’s never thought about it before, not really; he’d always taken for granted that his mother had the real powers, and he was just... he had some, they were different from hers, though. Different enough in presence that he had just never, never tried.

**Morning**

Daesung sits himself down in the very back of the room, farthest away from the door to the throne room, and tries his hand at bringing these plants to life.

It takes a lot of work, a lot of effort and trial and it’s hours later before he finally looks up and sees it; the ugly tree of Seunghyun’s own, poor creation, was filled with life. The leaves were green, deep and rich, and there were flowers, a beautiful pink, and honestly, he felt that it quite made up for the bark. The feeling of elation he gets at the knowledge that _he_ had done that. It had been him, and him alone and not his mother…

**Afternoon**

“What’s this?” Seunghyun’s silky voice says, floating in from the front of the room. “Thought you couldn’t do this.” The voice is closer this time around, but Daesung is holed up in one of the middle planters, the back of the room now flowering, vibrant and verdant.

“I’m a bit busy.” Daesung calls out, not worried about putting him off.

“I can see that.” Seunghyun says, and there’s a touch of amusement in his voice. “But I’m afraid I may have to cut your discovery short, though I do appreciate what you’ve done for them.”

Daesung stops what he’s doing at that, frowning, tilting his head to find Seunghyun around the rather large leaf of a brightly colored flowering plant. “Why?” He asks, confused.

Seunghyun looks at him, then, a look that was quite a lot of things all at once and none of those things were obvious to Daesung’s eye. “Demeter is rather put out about my trick. Razed the world, nothing will grow.” He says, matter of fact, and for a second, Daesung really doesn’t believe him.

“Demeter’s not like that, she…”

“Has made it so nothing can grow.” Seunghyun says, ignoring Daesung somewhat. “She’s willing, apparently, to consider bringing back the plants and greenery if…”

Daesung watches Seunghyun, watches him turn away as he says this, long fingers reaching to play with the flat leaves of the nearest tree. “If?” Daesung prompts after a few moments of silence. He doesn’t like it when Seunghyun goes silent, he doesn’t talk to him enough, actually engage with him enough, to be able to read it just yet.

Seunghyun sighs again. “If you agree to go back.” He says, and it’s so… it’s almost like Daesung had come here of his own volition.

But then, he hadn’t asked to be returned, just refused to eat, didn’t really speak. “So easy?” He asks, and he watches the little way Seunghyun’s face changes; obvious to him even from only Seunghyun’s profile.

“You’ll find it easy to go back?” Seunghyun asks, another moment longer than expected to get it out there.

It’s Daesung’s turn to pause now, though. He hadn’t really thought about it. He’d never asked to go home, not really, had he? He’d complained briefly about having been kidnapped, he’d said something every so often about it, but it was never very heartfelt. The truth was… “I like it here.” He says, and it’s mostly a surprise and he knows it sounds like he’s surprised but he can’t help it. He hadn’t thought it until it came out.

Seunghyun turns and looks at him at that, eyebrows raised and by the time Daesung has registered it he’s also registered that it was very carefully arranged to look so put together. It makes Daesung feel… comforted.

“With the plants, you mean, your own new breed now you’ve realized you can do it, hm?” Seunghyun says, like he’s goading Daesung into agreeing that it’s about the plants and not about anything else. “Well, that won’t work with Demeter, Daesung, I believe you know her as well as I do.”

It’s… Daesung blinks, fingers paused half on the bark of a strange tree and half in the dirt. He’s a mess, covered in soil and leaves and pollen, the juice of a fruit he had been a little too generous with his excitement on drying into his clothing; he’s a mess and here was Seunghyun acting almost petulant about him having to leave. He was acting like Daesung had come here of his own accord, as if Daesung had decided to waltz down here and…

He realizes rather suddenly that there was no indication for why Seunghyun had taken all of that effort to get him down here. No explanation in all the days and all the chats. Seunghyun had never said it was for him to fix the plants, had never said it was for him to fix up the garden, to make those trees and bushes and plants grow. No, Daesung had just assumed when he had been shown… and then he’d sat right down and mostly ignored Seunghyun for a good few weeks, growing more intrigued but completely and ludicrously ignorant to what Seunghyun could have wanted, what else could have been the motive for this forced meeting.

But if his mother was destroying the plants and the world with them… Well, he couldn’t rightly stay, could he?

“So I must go back.” Daesung says, slow, almost like he’s testing it out, but he isn’t sure who the test is for; him or Seunghyun.

Seunghyun pulls in a breath, lets it out obviously and slowly. “Yes, it seems you must. Zeus is quite disappointed, I can’t get around it.” He says, and Daesung thinks that’s untrue, but there’s something more there that he can’t quite piece together.

He stands, slow, brushing his hands off and then carefully stepping out of the planter, Seunghyun taking his hand to gracefully help him.

_Heat, fire, the blue crush of flickering flames…_

Their hands release each other when Daesung is standing upright, and it’s quiet outside of the growing plants and the rustling leaves still turning toward Daesung. “I can’t keep my mother waiting, the earth waiting, can I?” He asks, as Seunghyun takes a measured step away and toward the throne room.

“If you do, I imagine there will eventually be no one left to die.” Seunghyun says, and that was very ominous and very strange and Daesung thinks on it as he walks out of the little nursery room into the throne room, thinks on it as Seunghyun walks him to one side of the room and through a doorway he had never even considered before.

He thinks about it, about what that would mean for Seunghyun and for Hades, and what it would mean for his mother, for him, and for the rest of the gods. He thinks about it as Seunghyun stops, a frown on his face that is clearly a stoic mask and Daesung knows he has to go back, because without the earth there were no people, and without people, what were gods?

“So easy to leave?” Daesung asks, stopped in front of a rather plain stone doorway. He can feel the dead earth above him, though, and it pains him, possibly clearly if the way Seunghyun’s mask seems to crack for a moment suggests.

“All you ever had to do was ask.” Seunghyun says, and Daesung thinks that a part of him had always known that. It wasn’t as though Seunghyun had made any demands of him during his time there. But still…

_What had Seunghyun wanted of him?_

He nods as the doorway opens from a touch of Seunghyun’s long, slim fingers, and then he steps out into the arid heat of the barren world. He steps out and directly into Demeter’s arms, pulled into her bosom for a strong embrace.

_And he hates it._


	4. Summer Turns to Fall

**Morning**

The whole of Hades felt silent without Daesung. It felt empty and large and cavernous. It felt as it had felt before Daesung had been dropped in, before Seunghyun had convinced Gaia to entice Daesung into falling through his back door.

Seunghyun withholds from continuing his rather militant stalk back and forth over the long walkways of the throne room. It’s tedious, and it might make the souls think he was something like restless, or something worse like ‘hung up’ or ‘missing someone’.

Seunghyun scowls lightly to himself, truly lightly, barely more than a twitch of his lips. “It was nothing.” He says, soft and low, all to himself. It had been nothing, would be nothing, will forever be _nothing._

Daesung, the young god of growth and new life, would not be coming back.

“You should have told him _why_ he was here.” Chaerin says, lounged back in one of the couches in his personal quarters. “I’m sure he’d have been amenable.” She adds, as if she had ever met Daesung or knew anything about him aside from what she was told.

Seunghyun considers not answering her, hadn’t _invited_ her down here, but the goddess did what she wanted, when she wanted; it was the Zeus in her, no matter how much she tried to hide it. “It doesn’t work if he doesn’t want to be down here, you know _that_ much, Chaerin, don’t play yourself for a fool.”

Her eyes flash, a little dangerous, her father’s temper, but then she should have expected his reaction to her. “I’m not the one pining for a little god who needed your help to find out he was just as powerful, if not more so, than his mother.”

Seunghyun’s nose wrinkles minutely, a very small reaction that you could only see if you were truly paying attention. “Under Demeter’s thumb, no one would learn their own power.” He says, and… It’s almost unfair to Demeter, but then she’s so extremely overwhelming that of course she would cover Daesung from any knowledge of furthering himself.

He didn’t need to further himself, grow, if he had her to do things for him.

**Night**

Daesung had spent a full day, 2 full days, sitting with his mother, wandering with Demeter, as the world began to grow again. The grass came back to the fields, slow and new. The trees grew new leaves, from red bud to green, tiny leaf. They grew quickly, but still slow enough that they were still on their way to full and ready.

It was enough, though, for the mortals, for the moment.

Demeter was deceptively back to normal. There were loaves of bread in the kitchen, loaves upon loaves upon loaves. There were pies and root vegetables littering the table, all ready for the people, the followers, the devotees, the starving mortals. She would distribute them, set them out. So long as Demeter was baking and making there would be food for the mortals.

But Daesung just watches her. He just sits and stares and doesn’t take in.

He feels like he is missing something, like some part of him has been torn out, or… or like some part of him that had just started to grow was suddenly quashed, suddenly stopped, halted, frozen. It almost hurt to think about it, hence the staring, the quiet contemplation, the complete internal silence.

Something was wrong and missing, something was incorrect and lost, and he knew what it was. Or he thought he did, or maybe he might know, or maybe it didn’t matter what he knows or feels.

“Dear, check on the flowers?” Demeter asks, voice sweet and soft, and it had always been so soothing but now it grates. Now? Now her voice feels like a carefully construed manipulation.

It hurts him to think like this.

He stands up, though, and makes his way out the back door of their cozy house into the large garden kept there. It was different from the last time Daesung had been there. It was lighter, lighter colors and softer plants. The other plants were still there, but they weren’t ready yet. They weren’t ready to come back from the total devastation his mother had wrought in his absence. Because of his absence.

He considers trying out the powers he had awakened in himself in Hades, but he doesn’t want it, doesn’t want to raise these plants yet. It’s a strong aversion he feels, that almost stops him in his tracks as he heads to the tiny flowers popping up out of the earth along the edge of the enclosed space of their garden.

They’re very small, purple and white and blue. They scatter across the meadowland past the fence in small clumps and groups. They scatter out toward the now empty space to the right of Mount Olympus, and utterly disappoint Daesung. It’s a stupid feeling, he knows, a ridiculous thing to feel and think and allow but now he had no connection to the strange Seunghyun, ruler of Hades.

Daesung is a little annoyed with himself for these thoughts, annoyed because all he had done was –

All he had done was be free. He was _trapped_ in Hades, with no explanation or understanding of how to get out, and he had felt free. He was free and comfortable, could do what he wanted, be who and how he wanted. He could be the most him that he could be.

This is another stupid thought, because Daesung had always been himself, always been content. _Content._ He was comfortable with himself, had always been comfortable with himself, so what was this?

**Dawn**

Daesung watches the sun rise, slow and constant. He watches as the chariot gets pulled slowly across the sky, so slowly that he knows mortals cannot see it. So slowly that Helios could leave his chariot every so often, could switch places with Apollo if he so chose (he rarely chose).

It was early, and Daesung couldn’t count how many days had passed since he had walked out of Hades without a look back, walked right into his mother’s open arms.

But it had been too long.

Daesung yearned to go back. He yearned for that closed in room with the strange and new plants. He yearned for the quiet closeness, the solitude the time with Seunghyun.

He missed Seunghyun.

It was a strange feeling, something that he had been surprised about originally when he had finally understood what it was he was feeling. But now? He wasn’t surprised by it any longer. He can sit here with his head pillowed against his arms on the windowsill and think about it and not flinch or show it on his face at all.

What he misses is the mystery of Seunghyun, he thinks, the way Seunghyun was everything and nothing and not at all anything strange but not at all anything _normal._ A horrible word, maybe, because he can’t confirm what it really means or what normal would really be. Because all he knew was Demeter, all he knew was his home and the mortals who came by, and what was normal _there_?

He missed that Seunghyun was curious about him, about _Daesung_. He missed that Seunghyun had this quiet intensity that was hard to put into words but that existed in such a way that he couldn’t ignore it. He’d done a good job of pretending he wasn’t affected, or interested, or listening when he had come home. Because he hadn’t been truly listening, while he was there, he can’t pretend that he had been paying devout attention to every inane word that came out of Seunghyun’s wry mouth. He couldn’t pretend that he really sat there with close attention being paid to every movement and word being said to him, but he can’t say that he wasn’t listening.

He had thought he was mostly unaware of Seunghyun, but only because he wasn’t trying to listen or pay that attention to him. It had been stupid, but Daesung was not infallible, but the point remained; despite what he thought, he _had_ been paying attention, had heard everything that Seunghyun had been saying.

He had heard the soft complaints about the silly workings of the court of the gods, he had heard the silky way Seunghyun talked about things he enjoyed, and oh had he heard the dry way he talked about his work. The way he talked about _him_ , though, the way he articulated his confusion and his delight…

It had really passed him by when he had been there, but thinking back, well…

Or he was just overthinking it, overthinking and fitting in something that wasn’t actually there. It’s this thought, this pervasive and growing belief, that makes him sit back from the window and his contemplation.

**Midday**

The chariot seems stalled high above them, and Daesung considers calling out at Helios to ask him what he’s doing, and why he’s punishing him.

The garden was in fuller bloom now, vegetables with shorter shelf lives and brightly colored flowers popping forth for them as the day goes on. It means he’s out there, has been all day, will be for a while more. He has to harvest the ripe vegetables for the mortals, make sure they know what is right and correct. He usually enjoys it, but something about it reminds him of all the things that he could do.

Daesung _could_ be out there, right now, raising new plants, working on forests and glades and prairie lands. He could be down in Hades, also, where he could learn more about himself, about Seunghyun, in a controlled environment, a nurturing environment…

No, no that’s... It’s exactly the same as being held captive here, or the feeling of captivity that Daesung now feels here.

Daesung shakes his head, finishes off this row of snap peas, and heads inside. He can’t keep thinking like this. It was unproductive, it was stifling, it…

**Mid-morning**

“The world is back to normal, I hope this has cleared your conscience?” Seunghyun asks, standing with his back to Zeus, staring out into the cloud covered sky. He hates coming to Olympus, hates how it’s all Zeus’s palace, hates that he can see just as little from so far above as he can from his own place down below.

Zeus makes a sound, and Seunghyun hopes that he has annoyed him, at the very least. “I see it’s had no bearing on your own.” He says, and Seunghyun rolls his eyes but doesn’t turn back from the window; doesn’t want to give his brother the pleasure.

“I can’t imagine what you might mean.” He says, and Zeus laughs, amused in the way that only someone who is completely convinced they are correct about something can be.

“You didn’t really care, so long as you got Daesung.” Zeus says, and Seunghyun makes a face, shakes his head, then actually turns around now.

That wasn’t what it had been about. He had no other way of meeting Daesung, no way to casually meet him because of Demeter and Zeus _knew_ that. Knew that he would never be allowed to casually meet Daesung or find a way to talk to him because Demeter would not bring Daesung to Olympus, wouldn’t bring him around, wouldn’t allow Daesung to talk to him were he to show up to her place. “Not true.” Is what he says instead of all of that because Zeus knows it, and also because it’s quite horribly too much emotion.

“Eloquent.” Zeus says, and he looks just as smug as Seunghyun had imagined he would look, sitting on his white throne. “Though it might be of interest to you to know that Demeter fears she’s losing him.”

This is such an odd thing for Zeus to tell him, so odd that Seunghyun is silent a moment, unable to form words in response. It’s thrown him, uncertain what to say to that, or to think.

“I imagined that would be of interest to you. She told Apollo, though I can’t imagine why she was talking to him. I think he was just around, you know, like he does.”

Seunghyun’s face responds on its own, worried and annoyed. It’s still only a small change in his expression. “I’m sure he will be fine, he chose to return.”

“Didn’t really have a choice, did he? Demeter was ruining the earth, killing everyone…” Zeus says, then shrugs, which is so infuriating that Seunghyun considers stomping out. “You know we couldn’t have that.” He adds, which Seunghyun thinks was wholly unnecessary.

**Night**

Sometimes…

Sometimes Daesung finds himself listening on the wind for that sound, the sound of the trees with the weird bark and the strange fruits. Sometimes it’s the sound of a dragging cloak, or the whisper of something called silk sliding across the floor, or the swish of a celebratory chiton coming up a row of vegetables behind him.

It’s too much, some days.

Some days Daesung walks through the garden and the plants shrink back away from him. It’s always a surprise, every time he notices it, and he has to quickly turn around and fix them before Demeter notices it.

Some nights, like tonight, he sits there and listens to the breeze rustling through the wheat and corn and he wonders. He wonders as the stalks grow tall and the wheat closer to harvest if he should do something else, something more. He wonders if maybe he’s going a little crazy; he’s heard of humans doing it, heard of it very rarely in _gods._

He wonders if maybe he should find his way back, slip from his mother’s grip and wander the earth looking for that back door entrance to Hades. Wonders if he should do it because he desperately wants to feel that freedom again, that thrill of discovery as he learned what he was capable of.

The white flowers that had been blooming along the vine making up the windowsill whither as he stands up, but he doesn’t notice. The vine itself blackens where his hands had been.

**Dawn**

Demeter had noticed.

How could she not when her son, her _own son_ was different. He was unhappy, something he’d never been before, not really.

Demeter watched as he healed the plants gone dry as a bone and withered by his presence. She watched as the stumps they sat on at the table rotted when he walked away from them. She watched and she fixed and she turned a blind eye… But she can’t forever.

**Mid-Morning**

“What did he do to Daesung?”

Chaerin grins from her perch on one of the open window sills, the arch above her gleaming almost too brightly. Demeter can’t see her from here, but if she moves she knows Demeter will know she’s there.

“Who, Seunghyun?” Zeus asks, remarkably unworried about the wrath his elder sister could unleash when she wanted.

The scoff Demeter unleashes makes Chaerin carefully bite her lips closed so as not to laugh out loud. “You know very well who I meant.” Demeter says.

“He wouldn’t do anything to Daesung.” Zeus says, in a way that would be very telling if you were anyone but Demeter, currently.

“So certain, so confident he wouldn’t do anything?” Demeter asks, voice rising, and Chaerin closes her eyes and smiles; loves it when Zeus gets shouted at. “But then there’s still Daesung, still what’s happening to him, and if that wasn’t Seunghyun’s doing than I don’t know what is.”

Zeus sighs, and Chaerin imagines him shifting on his marble throne. “Does it have to be Seunghyun who did it? Or did being away from you unlock some of Daesung’s actual potential?”

The room goes silent, still, cold. It’s uncomfortable, and Chaerin tries not to fidget, really wants to hear this; Daesung was one of her favorites, though she rarely got to see him because of Demeter. If anyone was overbearing, it was _her._

“Away from _me?_ ” The tone of voice is very threatening, but Zeus remains as unshaken as ever.

“Yes.” He says, simple, but growing in impatience. “You’ve kept him locked away from everyone else, kept him away from the rest of us, kept him subordinate to you from birth… And you wonder why he’s different after a few weeks outside of your tireless control?”

The silence is more volatile now, not as still and cold; like Demeter’s whole being is working to understand and not explode at Zeus. Chaerin wouldn’t blame her if she did, really, he was remarkably insensitive at times, but then... But then he wasn’t wrong about this. Daesung deserved to actually come into his own, get out from Demeter’s shadow. He was likely far more powerful than she ever let on.

“You… You _dare_?” She says, finally, and Chaerin leans a little closer, eyes wide with interest.

“I do.” Zeus says, even and almost uncaring. “He is _your_ son, and you can do as you please, but he’s a fully grown god in his own right.” Zeus’s sigh is loud and put upon here, and he’s clearly not worried about himself despite Demeter’s mood.

Chaerin bites her lip, finding it all interesting, especially what the siblings are clearly leaving out in this conversation, because that could add a lot of insight.

For example: how had Daesung changed? Was he cocky? Was he ill? Was he scared and timid? Chaerin had so little knowledge of his normal behavior that she can’t even guess what could have changed. She thinks it’s important, though; either he’s acting differently in a way that would make his mother think some kind of _enchantment_ was on him, or he was different in a way that brought to mind having experienced something.

On Zeus’s end, Chaerin knows what he’s holding back: Seunghyun was infatuated with Daesung, and wouldn’t have let any harm come to him while he was in his care. He was hinting at it, sure, but he wasn’t _saying_ it. For good reason, maybe (Chaerin can only imagine the meltdown if Demeter found out Seunghyun had initially intended to _court_ Daesung by stealing him), but it was still being withheld.

The conversation continues while Chaerin’s head is elsewhere, and she tries to decide how she should use the information she has gathered. It’s not easy to get down into Hades, so if she wanted to goad Seunghyun into some type of action, she would need to wait for him to show up _here_ or somewhere else like…

That’s it, though: she can go and observe Daesung to see what these changes might be, and most certainly she’ll run into Seunghyun there as well.

Two birds; one stone.

**Night**

Daesung had considered leaving when his mother wasn’t back by noon time. He sat down and ate lunch instead; thick slices of warm bread with honey and fruit.

And then he went out into the garden and collected the daily harvest. He was lost in it, lost in his thoughts and actions, the methodical picking and packing and setting aside. It wasn’t until the sun had started to set that he realized he hadn’t left.

It wasn’t until he was in his room that he realized that he had felt watched all day, like eyes were on the back of his neck, like…

**Afternoon**

“Who made you this tree to hide behind?” Chaerin asks, nonchalant, chewing on… nothing, probably. Everything Chaerin did was for the aesthetic.

Seunghyun sighs, robes rustling, too dark for the bright sun on earth. “Gaia is a personal friend.” He says, dismissive, though he’s annoyed with himself for having said it and fallen for her bait.

She snorts at him, leaning against the large tree just beside him. “A relative, to be more precise, hm?” She asks, “and for some reason she’s willing to help you.” She adds, and Seunghyun doesn’t respond to that comment.

He doesn’t respond because he knows why Gaia is helping him; it’s because she feels bad for him, or feels for him, or thinks he’s pathetic. A pathetic ruler of the underworld who just wants to spend some time with…

“He has no idea you want him.” Chaerin says, and Seunghyun’s nose wrinkles.

“You have a horrible way of speaking.” He says, a little snobbish, and she laughs, soft and light. He wrinkles his nose further as nearby animals seem to rustle in similar excitement. “In response to your _non_ question; he has no idea what he is capable of, and he is wasted here.” He says, partly just to get her out of his head, swipe the soft laughter from his ears.

There’s silence for a moment, and Seunghyun hopes she’s not getting angry over him ignoring her laughter; she was volatile at the best of times, and he supposed it came from having Zeus as a parent. She isn’t though, he realizes, she’s just… watching him.

“You know,” she says after a moment, “I think it’s pity that’s motivating Gaia; you’re too scared of Demeter to even walk over to the edge of the garden.”

Or maybe she was just going to be mean.

“If I got any closer, Demeter would lock him up for sure.” He says, stiff, quiet, his voice rolling through the air like fallen leaves over the ground.

“Maybe, but if what she was saying to Zeus the other day was any kind of true… well, Daesung would likely find his own way out.”

Seunghyun actually turns around at that, turns away from his squinting vigil facing Daesung’s garden, so that he can look at her. He’s suddenly a little larger, swelling almost, darkness starting to take up residence around him. “What did she say?” He asks, low and almost menacing.

It doesn’t work on Chaerin, but then very little does. She shrugs, picking at her nails as if she’s ever looked anything less than immaculate. “He’s _changed_ , Seunghyun. Your precious Daesung is unhappy, it would seem, unhappy sitting confined in his garden and his little house. It brings him no joy to be under Demeter’s green thumb.” She’s watching him, watching him with sharp eyes that see too much and know too much.

Seunghyun pulls in a breath, willing himself to calm down, willing the darkness to swirl inward again. “He should,” He says, turning slowly back to stare at the house, the conversation over now, a small smile fighting for footing on his lips, “he’s better, bigger than she can contain.”


	5. Fall

**Dawn**

The chariot had not yet become visible in the sky when Daesung made his way out and into the garden. His moods were getting darker and darker as of late, and he couldn’t sleep for very long. It was…

It was unpleasant, but he found everything wholly unpleasant recently. He drew no joy from the earth and the tilling of soil. There was no warmth in him at the thought of a breeze through tall wheat. There was nothing enticing about fresh bread, or honey or jam. Daesung felt listless, lifeless, wrung out and left to dry in winds that ripped through him instead of gently handling him.

He didn’t understand this feeling that was clawing it’s way, bit by bit, through him. He felt like he was missing something, and had felt that way since he had gotten back, but somehow it had grown.

The feeling in his chest, that hollow ache of _missing_ had been easy to ignore at the very start, but it was swallowing everything and blotting out the sun in him. He couldn’t look at anything that used to bring him joy without feeling a profound ache of sadness, of wonder, of…

He was alone here. Alone in his thoughts and his worries and fears and doubts. He was so truly alone right now, and his mother… She would never allow him out.

Stood in the center of a field of rapidly browning wheat, Daesung stares off into the distance. There was a lone tree out there, beyond the fields of waving wheat. He looks down at the decay wrought by his mood, his being; flattened, charred looking stalks bent toward him and away as though in submission and sadness. The tree shouldn’t be there, he knows this because he knows these fields and gardens better than anyone does. The tree, then, is where he needs to go.

He takes a few steps forward, slow to start, his mood kicking up as he moves. The dying circle of wheat perks up just a touch, but he still leaves a swath of decay along his path as he cuts through the field toward the lone tree at the edge. He can’t feel the eyes on the back of his head; he hasn’t sensed anything properly in a while.

**Morning**

Demeter watches, heart breaking, sadness settling in and taking over.

The harvest had been too short, she should have known…

Daesung’s mood had dropped steadily southward as the days and weeks had moved on, and around him the gardens and plants had grown and aged and withered away in a way that Demeter had not ever allowed. _There must always be plenty to go around._

But it felt like a natural order, and she knew it to be because to keep her plants from decaying she had always had to tend to them, have Daesung tend to them. She had been stopping it from happening for as long as she had had Daesung. This was the circle of life for her plants, for her bounty, and she knew it but hated it. She hated it because she could not stop it any longer. She could not put up any walls, any protections against it.

This was Daesung’s power, part of his power; the cycle of life. The ups and downs of the order of her plants. Like humans and animals, all things must come to an end, so why not her flowers and her vegetables? Her fruit? Demeter may have created them, but that didn’t stop the fact that they were _living_ and therefore had to die.

What she hated the most, however, was the loss of her son.

As he walked through the wheat field, she knew that she could never have him back; not the way he had been. She wanted to blame Seunghyun, wanted to place every angry thought and feeling on his head.

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t shake what Zeus had said to her, about her holding Daesung back. She _had ,_ and she knew it. That’s what hurt the most about this. She _knew_ she had been holding Daesung back, holding him close and tight and refusing to budge. But she hadn’t _known_ exactly what he could do, had she? She had only noticed the sudden onset of _aging_ that her garden experienced once he had arrived.

She shakes her head, just a little, eyes never leaving the slowly shrinking Daesung as he disappears toward the edge of the wheat. He would be gone from her soon, and she wasn’t sure what she could do to earn the right of having him back.

**Noon**

Distance meant very little here.

Daesung knew that he would reach the tree at some point, just like he knew this tree would lead him directly to Hades. The longer it took him to get to the tree, the more certain he became of this.

The tree had appeared when he was ready, of this he was certain. He had contemplated running away many times since he had made it back to the gardens, but had never gotten up the nerve; the tree was his sign that he was ready to make good on these thoughts, to make good on himself. It was time to go back to Hades, to… to Seunghyun.

It was an odd thought, or maybe just a recurring one that he’s finally really allowed himself to listen to.

Seunghyun would be there, would be quiet and stoic and maybe ask him about weird plants and complain about the souls in the throne room touching his feet when his robes were cut fashionably short. The thought makes Daesung smile ever so slightly, his first smile in weeks.

Would Seunghyun be happy to see him? Welcome him at all? But the tree was there, looming closer now, branches high overhead and welcoming him closer. The entrance wouldn’t have appeared if Seunghyun didn’t want him to come back, right?

He stops at the trunk and tilts his head back and up so he can follow it up to the branches. It was a nice old tree, thick in the trunk, vibrant in the leaves. He looks forward again, eyes on the rough and gnarled bark before him. It was a normal tree, _oak_ his mind supplies, which was an interesting choice he thought. He reaches out to press his hand flat against the bark at shoulder-height, not sure how he is supposed to get in, but also wanting to feel the life of such an old being.

The bark is rough under his hand, but the life-force within is strong, beating consistently against his hand, reverberating through his arm and down to his toes. It’s _restorative,_ almost. His whole being waking up, ready for whatever comes next after this.

His hand trails down and then away from the trunk of the tree until he is just standing there again. He can hear the wind wandering slowly through the leaves, rustling them high above his head. There’s the scritch and scratch of small animals over the branches, and Daesung’s eyes close of their own accord. It was beautiful and relaxing and oh did he like this simplicity. He pulls in a deep breath and lets it out slowly, eyes opening on this exhale.

There is an opening now, Daesung can see it, small at first but growing larger as he watches. It’s deep black inside, and he hesitates for a moment, considering the cool air seeping out from it. It takes him only a moment, though, and then he’s stepping in with eyes wide open, ready.

**Afternoon**

The blue-white of slowly flaring torch light is what greets Daesung as he steps through the opening in the tree trunk.

He stops once fully inside, allowing his eyes to adjust, feeling the hard rock beneath his feet. He wishes he weren’t wearing shoes today, but he can remedy that later. He takes a breath and another step forward, and feels the opening close softly behind him; no exit. Instead of worry or fear, this thought produces a flicker of excitement, of eager anticipation.

The torches flare to life, leading him, urging him forward and with a breath he takes another step, then another, and still more as they leap to life and then gutter behind him. It’s more like coming home than going back to Demeter had felt like, the feeling he has right now. This excited eagerness that’s pushing at him, pulling at his very being is so intense and invigorating. He hasn’t felt anything so strong as this in weeks and he wants to follow it, needs to: he wants to be _himself_ again.

The torches lead him through a few turns before dropping him into the throne room. It’s exactly as he remembers it; all cold, black stone with sparkling color streaked through it at random, torches lighting the main pathway down the center between the large pits that glowed with a wavering green light.

Daesung stops here, just inside, looking across the room to the throne cut out of the dark rock, and then to the side and the door there. It’s exactly as he remembers it, empty, cold, but still somehow welcoming. It's...

**Late Afternoon**

Seunghyun frowns.

There’s something wrong, but he can’t really pick up on what it is. Mostly this is because Zeus will not stop speaking, and then partly because nothing is _ever_ wrong with Hades.

It takes him a minute, but then he waves his hand at Zeus to be quiet and focuses on the feeling. Really _focuses._

“Where is Daesung?” He asks, rather sudden in the silence of room.

Zeus frowns but doesn’t ask why, instead he just gives him a put upon look and tilts his head as if in thought. “Not with Demeter.” He says, easy, and Seunghyun wrinkles his nose.

Zeus could be helpful when he wanted, but still maddeningly difficult to deal with. “I think I must take my leave of you.” He says, pushing away from the setee he had been lounging on, and turning to leave.

“Does this mean you won’t stop by anymore?” Zeus calls at his back, but Seunghyun doesn’t answer him.

**Evening**

The throne room had been comforting, but more comforting was the antechamber holding the small forest Daesung had managed to get growing.

The plants were a little worse for wear having languished just a little without him there to feed them or tend to them, but there they all still were. Every single new and individual plant such a great comfort to him here. He spends a few hours before he’s realized it, just touching them, talking to them.

When the door opens he doesn’t notice it. He’s standing in the center of a planter, toes curled into the soil, hands up to check on the fruit of the tree before him; plump and red, an odd shape that he thinks will be even odder on the inside. He hears the drag of fancy fabric along the floor before and pauses before he even consciously realizes it.

“There is a pile of flowers outside the door, they seem wholly out of place.” Seunghyun says, his deep, silky voice sending a soft shiver of excitement down Daesung’s back.

He had missed this, hadn’t he? His hands busy and Seunghyun’s voice washing over him. “Oh no, my shoes.” Is what he says, though, because he hadn’t thought about what they would return to if he wasn’t there to supervise them, especially on this hard rock.

There’s a pause here, warmth infused. “Is that what they were?” Seunghyun asks, like he was amused and confused all at once. “and here I had been worried it was something worse.” He says, and Daesung rolls his eyes, feeling a smile on his lips; a full, true smile.

“I don’t believe _that._ ” He says, shifting his feet out of the soil and stepping onto the floor. It was a jarring difference from the soil, the rock was, but it was okay because there was Seunghyun. He looked confused, confused and something a little like relieved, and happy, and… “What else could they have been?” He asks, prompting since he just kind of wants to hear that voice again.

Seunghyun sniffs, watching Daesung in that way Daesung remembers him doing so often before. It’s like he’s fighting some deeper emotion, or like he isn’t sure how to show what he wants to. “One can never be certain… around here.” He says, and Daesung rolls his eyes, the smile still on his face.

“I’ll go fetch them.” He promises, moving to walk past, but he stops himself when Seunghyun takes a half step forward.

“I must ask, Daesung, does Demeter know where you are?”

Daesung found it difficult to read Seunghyun, or he would say that he did as he didn’t have much practice. The truth, of course, was in the subtleties, and those he was very good at noticing. For example, the cut of Seunghyun’s cape allowed for soft movements when Seunghyun moved; obvious either when he is walking or when he was making a small, nervous movement. In this case, the cape is shifting as if Seunghyun might be tapping his fingers to his palm from beneath it. Or the small twitch to the corner of Seunghyun’s mouth, indicating that whatever emotion is there is something he is trying to hide. This was the same as most of his emotions, always keeping them held back, but something about it read as nerves more than anything else right now.

Daesung takes this all in, and then plants himself firmly, arms over his chest as he faces Seunghyun. It’s resigned and matter of fact and portraying a kind of confidence that he doesn’t really feel but that he wants to portray. “Probably.” Is what he decides on saying, but then his face betrays a creeping sense of uncertainty that he hadn’t really allowed himself to consider; Seunghyun might no longer be interested in his company. “She is always watching, always aware of what I am doing.” He adds, voice a little softer.

Seunghyun looks at him, eyes on his face a moment longer than could be considered comfortable in most circumstances. “She cannot see you down here.” He reminds him, and Daesung nods, “She does not have any dominion over these halls.” He adds, and Daesung nods again.

It takes him a moment, unused to expressing himself, unused to really feeling after the past few months, but he smiles again. “I am not looking for her, Seunghyun. I came here of my own accord, to find the… to find myself again.” It’s not the right time, he thinks, to talk of happiness. He’s been here moments in comparison to the time spent outside, and he has to remember that.

**Dawn**

The torches flare slowly to life around the bed, and Daesung opens his eyes, slow and careful. It was, he assumed, the same room he had had the last time he was here. It felt familiar and comforting, despite the cold of the stone surrounding him. He could live with this, he knows, wanted to.

He slips out of the bed, feet landing on the warm floor, and he feels _better._ He feels real and understood, and all he’s doing is standing in a black room with blue-white torches lining the walls. It feels silly, but at the same time it’s so expected that he can’t even be surprised.

He stands there a moment, just connecting with _himself_ and it feels like he’s waking up again. There was something about _here_ that felt like home, and whether it was the rooms and the places or the company (such as it was) it didn’t matter; he was here, he was him.

He pulls clothes on, but leaves his shoes; reminding them to remain as shoes and not be so dramatic today. The torches lead him down the hall and back to the throne room, where today, right now, he can see Seunghyun pacing along the central walkway.

“Something amiss?” Daesung asks from the head of the walkway, hesitating to get closer. He had never quite gotten used to the pools of souls while he had been here before, and now he had never really engaged with Seunghyun around them, never really spent time around them.

Seunghyun looks over at him, paused near the center. “No, not really.” He says, which is not a very helpful answer, but then Daesung knew very little about this.

“Then you’re pacing…?” He asks, trailing off.

Seunghyun stares at him, blinking slowly a moment. “Ah, yes, just…” he gestures out over the pool to his side. “I have to keep track, you know.” He adds.

Daesung nods, and finally takes a few steps forward, almost cautious. He looks, he thinks, rather silly next to Seunghyun. He had no shoes on, chiton earthy, hair a little wild, eyes like soil and greenery, skin tanned like he was in the sun. Seunghyun was perfectly coiffed, black hair, pale and touched with that blue hue that the fires here possessed, dressed in all black. “Interesting.” He says, and he’s made it most of the way to Seunghyun by now.

“I suppose.” Seunghyun says, watching Daesung rather obviously. “How are you? You seem different from yesterday.” He says, and it’s a careful way, slow like he was trying to…

Daesung bites his lip feeling thoughtful for a moment, his toes digging into the rock, curling. “I’m… better.” He says, slow, like he’s testing it out. “I feel closer to myself than I have since I left here. Better, more me.” He continues, and he feels it, thinks it will take some time to be better, normal, surpass normal but for now…


	6. Fall to Winter

**Afternoon**

Demeter stood in the middle of her gardens; the fields of wheat cut low from harvest. It was a new feeling, to have the harvest decimate her fields. _Unfair, that word, it was natural like this._

Daesung had left her 3 days ago, and with him had gone the bloom of ever-growing life from the plants of the world. It was _natural_ , she knew this, it was the normal process that she had subverted for her own pleasure and gain because she had Daesung to help her: She could make things grow, make new things, keep things bountiful, but her moods had always been her downfall. Her moods influenced the plants, gave them life or took it away, and Daesung had been able to keep it in check but now…

Well, she thinks as she stares out across the shorn stocks of wheat, the natural order was restored. If Daesung was happy she could…

**Night**

“Tell me, Seunghyun, what do you get from this? From me being here?” Daesung asks. He had been there for at least 3 days now, and had been playing in the dirt of the antechamber garden for most of that time. It seemed, again, like Seunghyun couldn’t possibly be getting anything from this relationship.

Seunghyun, who had come to collect Daesung and convince him off to bed, was rather characteristically stoic and quiet in the face of that question. They’re walking, slow, toward the thin walkways between the glowing pools of souls. The quiet isn’t uncomfortable, but Daesung wonders if maybe there was another way to ask that question. Maybe there was a way to ask it where Seunghyun would ans-

“Your company, of course.” Seunghyun says, voice low like it normally was when he had been deep in thought. It wasn’t rushed like it sometimes sounded when Daesung knew he had surprised Seunghyun with a question more personal than anticipated. This means, possibly, that Seunghyun has been waiting for him to ask it.

Daesung takes a breath, deep and slow, then lets it out on a sigh. “But me?” He asks, like he’s tired, confused by the answer; he isn’t, but he wants more information and is still working Seunghyun out.

They pause, then, because Seunghyun stops just a few steps onto the walkway. It’s clear to Daesung that he’s trying to think of a way to explain what he is thinking. “I think, Daesung, we have discussed your worth many a time before.” He says, looking out over the pool of glowing souls closest to him. “I’m beginning to believe you just like hearing it.” He adds, and this is a little more teasing, and causes Daesung’s cheeks to warm.

“Well, that would be quite presumptuous.” Daesung says, shifting from foot to foot, feeling the cold rock under his feet. It grounds him in a different way from the earth and soils that held living things; it’s almost a reminder, brings him out of his head. Seunghyun turns his head back, looking down at Daesung with a look that is just _this_ far from being considered knowing.

“It would, wouldn’t it?” He says, and then continues down the walkway, Daesung taking just a second to follow, hurrying just a touch to catch up.

**Morning**

Chaerin slips into Hades through a backdoor that she can only find _sometimes._

Seunghyun didn’t like visitors, and visitors really weren’t conducive to a properly running underworld so she _got it_ , really, she did. The only problem was that, sadly, she didn’t care and she was extremely nosy.

“Seunghyun? Come out, come out wherever you are~” She calls, a little playful, as she is wont to be.

There is a shuffle at the end of the dark hallway she had entered after the doorway had shut behind her. She can see the blue-white flames of the torches that lined the walls bust into life at the other end of the hall and decides to keep walking. The torches didn’t like her very much, and so only sputtered lightly to life; like they were protesting her presence. Part of her thinks that it’s at Seunghyun’s behest that the torches give her such a lukewarm welcome, but a larger part of her knows that in fact it’s just because of who she is that the torches have a hard time lighting for her alone.

“Who’s there?” She calls again, sounding amused and interested and as though she believes this is all just a very simple but amusing game.

There is the shuffle again and then a figure steps fully into the hallway just ahead of her. “I’m sorry?” The being says in a voice that is nicely full, with a richness that she can’t really place; it must be Daesung.

She hurries a little, her pace upping so that she can be closer and truly get a good look at him up close. He was, truly, very attractive; all dark, soft, and fluffy hair, warm skin and earthy eyes. He was taller than her, but that meant nothing, really, because these forms were not very indicative of their inner power. “You are _not_ Seunghyun.” She says as she gets closer, and she watches with satisfaction as his eyes go wide before settling back to a more neutral expression.

“Well, no, well-spotted.” Daesung says, and she grins at him; the easy charm of someone young, powerful, and beautiful.

She steps closer, “Chaerin.” She says, and watches as Daesung takes that in, eyes flashing with recognition.

“Ah, I am Daesung.” He says, and she hums, warm, smile sweet and secretive.

“Yes, well, I would be surprised if anyone else was down here with Seunghyun.” She says, a little teasing. “But, come along, take me to him, I’m sure that’s where you’re off to.” She holds up her arm, and Daesung takes an obvious breath before politely taking her arm to lead her along.

“I wasn’t, actually, but I’m sure he’ll be somewhere nearby.”

**Lunch**

Seunghyun hated Chaerin.

He _didn’t_ of course, because that would be ridiculous as she was just a nuisance who happened to be Zeus’s daughter. What he hated was that she had come in and taken over a potentially nice day with Daesung.

He was working his way up to a decent relationship with him, an easy conversational relationship, but in comes Chaerin and within a few hours they’re off in the antechamber talking like they’d known each other their whole lives. _Infuriating_.

_“Zeus was talking about it the other day; Demeter is taking it well. Or… as well as she can. She’s not stomping across the earth and killing people.”_

_“Well, he left on his own this time. She’s not incompetent, not stupid.” Seunghyun had said, softly annoyed, eyes to the right just in case Daesung decided to come out while they were talking._

_Chaerin had grinned at him, easy and horrible as she tended to be. “True, though I wonder if she knows…”_

_“Don’t, Chaerin, I can have you expelled from here easily enough.”_

And there she had gone, right on into the antechamber to play with Daesung and leave him to brood; and brood he has been doing.

So what, he thinks, if he cannot yet tell Daesung why he had brought him down in the first place? So what if he dodges the question every time it is brought up or the potential for the question is brought up. So _what_ if Daesung was even more enticingly interesting and fun now…

And _so what_ if Seunghyun’s original, basic interest in a pretty and unobtainable god had grown and changed into something more than it had been before? Something more rounded and realistic and…

“I don’t know if it’s truly edible, Chaerin, I think we should maybe-“

Seunghyun blinks, pulled from his reverie and turning back toward the throne side of the room. Chaerin was leading Daesung out of the antechamber and toward him. She had cut Daesung off, apparently, though Seunghyun isn’t sure how as she doesn’t start talking until they are closer.

“Seunghyun, Seunghyun you didn’t tell me that Daesung was cultivating such a beautiful forest in your throne area.” She says, and Seunghyun blinks slowly, letting himself take a moment to respond.

His eyes trail to Daesung behind her, a thing that his eyes tend to do anyway though he has no one to admit that to and wouldn’t anyway (won’t if Chaerin tries to call him on it). “I couldn’t possibly have done it justice.” He says, eyes turning back to Chaerin, slow and purposeful, hands going behind his back. “It sounds like you enjoyed it, despite my lack of promotion.” He adds, just to see her roll her eyes at him.

Chaerin tugs Daesung closer to her, and he wonders if Daesung’s reluctance is because she’s well-known as an absolute terror or because of _him_. “Well, obviously, it’s a delight, and quite remarkable!” She says, Daesung pulled in against her side now, and Seunghyun shifts almost imperceptibly but…

But Daesung sees it, Seunghyun can tell, and he has a moment of worry that he’s becoming _obvious_ but Chaerin doesn’t notice so…

“She’s most excited about the fruit.” Daesung says, pulling away from Chaerin’s side just a touch. “She wants to try it but, well…”

Seunghyun frowns, “you know the rules, Chaerin, you can’t eat anything down here, especially if it was created down here.” She sighs at that, but Daesung seems surprised.

“What? No, I was just going to say that we don’t know what it will taste like, which I suppose is the point, I mean… When it’s… new.” Daesung says, trailing off a little at the end, really starting to process what Seunghyun had said.

Chaerin hums, though, clearly finding some angle she wants to exploit. “I hadn’t _forgotten_ , I was just overwhelmed by excitement, I mean, what has ever grown here of its own accord? Daesung was the one who grew it, I mean it wasn’t of Hades born…”

Seunghyun doesn’t bother to correct her, a little confused by the fact that Daesung hadn’t known that rule about food from the underworld so he doesn’t want to talk about it too much. “I’m very proud of the work he has done, however, he’s a true marvel.” He says, and then proceeds to ignore the look Chaerin gives him and the way Daesung looks down with pink in his already warm looking cheeks.

**Dawn**

The earthy red of the strange new fruit seemed to be mocking him.

It was weird, and didn’t seem very easy to eat, and the purpose of it was wholly uncertain. But… well, Daesung had created it. It had grown from his own work and his own powers, and it was a reflection, then, of him. He pulls one from the branches and in a show of strength that he knows a human would likely have trouble copying were they to be introduced to this fruit, he breaks it open.

A few jewel-bright red orbs fall from the open fruit and Daesung’s eyes light up. That had to have been a seed, right? He looks at the halves in his hands, taking in the way the inside was set up, the hidden jewel-like orbs that held the seeds and… it was truly magnificent.

“Ah, is that it, then?” the low voice of Seunghyun says from just behind him.

He refuses to jump in alarm, a reaction that he only barely manages to control. “Ah, yes, yes it’s, here.” He says, turning to hand Seunghyun one half. “It’s different, but you see the red pods? They’re the seeds, but also the fruit, they must be filled with a sweet red juice.” He’s clearly pleased, but holding it back because he hasn’t tried it so doesn’t really know.

Seunghyun hums softly, and then he shakes out a couple of the pods into his free hand, and considers them a little more closely before popping them in his mouth and chewing. Daesung’s eyes go wide at this, but he’s watching very closely, clearly very interested.

“well?” He asks, despite himself.

Seunghyun smiles, just a little, and makes a soft sound. “Sweet, as you said, and definitely new.” He holds the half back out to Daesung to take back. “You haven’t tried it yet?” He asks, almost like he’s fishing, and Daesung shakes his head, looking at both halves again, feeling very accomplished.

“No, not just yet.” He says, and he wonders if he should, or if he needs to or if…

“Hm.” Is all Seunghyun says to that before changing the topic to ask if he wants to go to Mount Olympus with him to see Zeus.

He does not.

**Late**

It’s too early for him to do that, he thinks, is thinking, is _still_ thinking hours upon hours later.

He has too many confusing thoughts on himself and what he’s doing here and who he is doing it with and… It’s all very hectic inside his brain. He feels real down here, though, and he knows he doesn’t want to leave, but he also knows, deep, deep, deep in his heart and bones and everywhere else that he must go up again, feel the sun and the soil again. He needs it. He also knows that he can’t spent all his time in the antechamber with his little forest.

With a sigh, Daesung stops on his walk back to his room and leans against one of the cold, black walls. “So what is the right thing, then?” He asks, feeling rather dramatic at the moment.

He stays there for a moment, then shakes his head at himself and continues on to his room and its similarly cold walls. It’s comforting, but still feels like he’s only here temporarily. But that’s not his plan, is it? He plans to stay forever so long as Seunghyun allows it.

He’s been thinking about this for too long, he knows, so he sighs and changes, and climbs into bed.


	7. The Last

**First Light**

Seunghyun didn’t want to visit Zeus. He never did, but today there was the possibility that Demeter would be there.

He had asked Daesung if he wanted to go but wasn’t surprised when he had said no. It wasn’t surprising in the least that he had declined but it might have been nice to have Daesung on this journey with him. At least with Daesung he wouldn’t be walking into this terribly alone.

That was dramatic, wasn’t it?

“Well, you _are_ the Lord of the Underworld and all that.” A smiling voice says from just behind him. Seunghyun finds it annoying, but then, everything Jiyong said was annoying; he was just like his sister in that regard.

“You sound pleased with yourself; I’m assuming you’ve done something horrible like lure a maiden into a well to drown or something similar.” He says, frowning straight ahead. Just like with Chaerin, it was best not to encourage Jiyong by _looking_ at him.

Jiyong wasn’t put out which was very annoying, but very expected. “It was a man, actually.” Smug and comfortable and he was the epitome of annoying.

They stop at the edge of a clearing, Seunghyun not wanting to enter just yet. “I’m looking forward to the day that you get in trouble for stealing thoughts like that.”

“Shouldn’t leave them for me to grab them.” He says, walking a few steps forward, almost into the clearing. “Shouldn’t harbor young gods running from home, either, but then I think it’s kind of _sexy_ of you, and I bet he does too.” And then Jiyong takes the step into the clearing and with a wink he disappears.

Seunghyun follows after him, annoyed and wishing that he didn’t have to come out here as he steps into the clearing and reappears at the edge of Zeus’s throne room.

“Brother.”

**Mid-Morning**

Daesung stands in the middle of the throne room and feels very alone. It’s the first time he has felt like that down here, truly felt like that, and he’s very unsettled.

He had spent all night tossing and turning and thinking about the fruit he had made; the pomegranate. He had come up with the name sometime late, well past when he should have been sleeping. It was an intriguing and mysterious name for an equally intriguing and mysterious fruit. It felt _right_ and _good_ and like a proper accomplishment.

But now, here, Daesung feels uncertain and alone and confused. He should, he thinks, do something more. The problem is that he isn’t sure what that _more_ is.

Daesung frowns to himself and turns toward the little garden antechamber. “The pomegranate.” He murmurs, and maybe…

**Lunch**

Daesung hadn’t eaten in a long while, had chosen not to, didn’t need to.

But maybe he hadn’t eaten for the very simple fact that he knew very well that he shouldn’t eat anything from Hades. It was one of those things a god knew and humans learned. It was a simple, cautionary thing: _If you eat from the larder of the gods, there you shall remain._

It was short and vague and easy.

It was also ridiculous, because everyone knew that the food from Demeter wouldn’t harm you; so it was too broad a rule already to be truly useful. Now that Daesung was down here he was also certain that Seunghyun absolutely didn’t have a _larder_ and probably never ate. In truth, he thinks as he sits on the steps leading up to Seunghyun’s throne, it had probably never occurred to Seunghyun to eat.

So, if that was the case, how would one end up being trapped down here?

He looks down at the pomegranate in his hand, lifting it up to admire it. Now there was a room off the main hall that had a number of beautiful trees bearing a beautiful fruit. He lowers his hand and uses both now to break open the peculiar fruit, eyeing the bright red seeds.

Would these seeds bind him to this realm? Seunghyun was able to come and go as he pleased, and he had eaten them. But maybe _he_ didn’t count. Daesung considers a little longer, the hours stretching on until he knows it is late, until…

**Afternoon**

Time on Olympus dragged and stood still. It started and stopped and rarely moved forward.

Another reason to hate visiting.

Demeter appears at some point in the hours he is there. She has a lot to answer for, it seems; crops are dying, food goes to waste, nothing _lasting._ Seunghyun feels heavy at the thought, at how this was what had lost him Daesung last time, what had lost him the one little bright spot he had ever had in Hades.

“It won’t matter.” Jiyong says, sitting on a low wall, arches and pillars rising around them, beside them. He says it as though he can tell what Seunghyun is feeling, which he dearly hopes the tiny god cannot. “Daesung left completely of his own accord this time, and now she can’t say it’s her own doing, Zeus won’t force your hand, or Daesung’s.” Jiyong gives Seunghyun a rather lecherous look, “Tell me, is he as attractive as all that? Worth all of _this?_ ”

Seunghyun contents himself with that knowledge, because if nothing else about Jiyong was clear, you could still always trust him to know his father, “You just said that _this_ didn’t matter.” He points out, eyes following the way Demeter talks with Zeus, the way Zeus casts his eyes away from her, lips forming a thin line while he falls into thought.

“So now you won’t admit that you desire the god?” Jiyong pushes; a true pest.

Seunghyun turns an eye on Jiyong, appraising, cool; “I desire peace, Jiyong. Haven’t you a chariot to ride?” He moves away from the wall then, back into the fray. He needs to be present, really, in case he must relay something back to Daesung, something of this whole mess.

**Night**

Seunghyun shakes off the cloying smoke of Olympus as he steps out of the forest and up to the closest entrance to Hades. He hates spending so long in the company of Zeus; it grated, and so did his children. Jiyong had been there the whole time, while Chaerin had shown up toward the end. Any amount of time in their presences was enough to incur a lifetime of headaches.

Maybe he would never go back to visit his brother again.

He’s a little startled to find Daesung sitting on the steps at the foot of his throne. He doesn’t show it, though, just takes a slightly longer time to make it across the walkway.

“I almost expected you to be in bed.” He says, careful, eyes catching on the fruit in Daesung’s hands. It had tasted sweet, tart, a little odd, but then it had been grown down here.

Daesung looks up at him like he is leaving a trance. “I’ve been trying to decide if I should try this.” He says, “what it tastes like.”

Seunghyun takes a few steps closer, “you probably shouldn’t, you know.” He wants Daesung to, of course, but he can’t encourage it. “You know the stories as well as I. If you eat it, you’ll be trapped.” He says, a little quieter.

The look Daesung gives him is easy, almost like he is looking through him. “I’m not sure it’s quite so bad as all that.” And then he dumps a few of the seeds into one hand and sets the rest of the fruit down as he stands. “I already made the decision to stay here, and… I haven’t eaten in a very long time.”

It’s quiet for a moment as Seunghyun takes a few steps, curving around Daesung now to stand closer to the stairs. “I suppose you have not.” He says, rather devoid of any tells. The reality, of course, is that if he were mortal and therefore had anything similar to a heart it would be beating erratically in his chest. As he is decidedly _not_ a mortal, the feeling is in his head, in the heaviness of his legs, in the oppressive feeling of the Underworld pressing down around them.

“It’s only 6 seeds.” Daesung says, eyes dropping from their perusal of Seunghyun back to his hand. The seeds were red, bright, and not at all innocuous. They were, Seunghyun knew, Daesung’s ticket to remain here with nothing Demeter could do to stop him.

“You should know, first, what is happening to the world without you.” Seunghyun says, and Daesung frowns, looking up at him slowly. It’s all Seunghyun needs to continue; he had never been considered _gentle._ “The plants wither and die, crops lasting only a short and allotted time. Demeter assures us that it is just the reality of the world: plants live and die in a cycle like the humans.” His lips quirk up just a touch, “it was _your_ power that allowed Demeter the ability to keep things alive as she had.”

Daesung’s hand closes around the seeds as he listens, and he bites his lip. “If it is the correct order, then who am I to disagree?” He asks, and in a fluid motion that Seunghyun should be ashamed for following so closely, he tosses the seeds into his mouth, chews thoughtfully, and swallows. A little shiver runs through Daesung, almost imperceptible, and then he looks back at Seunghyun. “Well, I feel no different.”

**Midnight**

Demeter feels it when it happens.

Zeus feels it, too.wall, trying to

Daesung doesn’t feel anything, not right away. He sleeps in his chamber, wondering what will change and what he wants most to happen. It’s selfish, he knows, but he wants more time with Seunghyun, wants to learn what he does and maybe… maybe help him.

**Morning**

“The taste?” Daesung asks, sitting against the dark, cool wall of one of the hallways. “Ah, a touch bitter, a touch sour, but still sweet.” He says, and Chaerin makes a thoughtful sound, leaned back against the wall opposite him, the torches above them burning blue and bright.

“Notice anything different?” She asks, eyes full of curiosity, something Daesung was still learning to understand on someone like them; he’d only known the wonder of humans before this.

He bites his lip, thoughtful as he considers the small changes he has noticed, and the big. “I can feel the energy of the stone.” He says, soft, almost reverent. “Before… I could not, I could only miss the soil and the plants and the energy they contain and give back.”

Chaerin tilts her head, bird-like he thinks, and considers him. “I’ve never thought of stone or plants for energy.” She admits, and Daesung smiles, soft and easy.

“Ah, yes, I think you, like my mother, get your energy from humans, from devotion. I think it is the same for most.” He says, considering that a little more, considering how this is just another thing that makes him different.

Chaerin makes a thoughtful sound, “Ah, I had never thought of it, but you’re not wrong…” She tilts her head a little. “You’ll have to ask Seunghyun more, he knows everything and Zeus answers no practical questions.” She says.

He wrinkles his nose, shaking his head a little bit. “I don’t think I’m worried about that enough to talk to… talk to Seunghyun about it just now. I’m still working on what this means, what this new feeling of energy means.”

“That you’re part of Hades now.” She says with a shrug, like it’s just so easy. “And you are, of course, you ate food from this realm, how many pieces again? 6? You’re at least half Hades now.”

Daesung blinks, soft confusion warring with a deeper sense that Chaerin is, of course, right. “6 pieces of fruit, 6 little red seeds, and here I am.”

The weight of it is suddenly very heavy. The consequences crashing down around him but then… then isn’t this how things are supposed to be?

Like the plants and trees up above, like humans and animals, all things had an end and a beginning. Wasn’t this change in him less of a change and more of an awakening? More of him coming into his own? Demeter had been able to stave off death, according to what Seunghyun had told him the night before, and to what Chaerin had confirmed to him this morning, only because of his own power to bring life no matter what.

And in his moods… in his moods hadn’t he proven to bring death as well? He hadn’t needed the seeds of his pomegranate to be this, he already _had been_. He had needed to eat them to allow himself to move forward, progress, fully come to himself.

“Here you are.” Chaerin says, her smile enigmatic as ever. “With the king of the Underworld at your beck and call, hm? Since meeting you I’ve could feel your power, as you can feel mine, but now it’s more complementary, evened out like you’ve noted.”

Daesung hums, soft, accepting it for now, letting it all wash over him. He appreciated Chaerin for the same reasons he knew Seunghyun couldn’t stand her; her freshness, energy, mischief.

**Early Afternoon**

Seunghyun watches Daesung walk down the central pathway between the deep pools of souls, but doesn’t rise from his throne.

There was a humming type of energy flowing through the dark stone surrounding them. The souls seem agitated in their pools, and at first he did not understand why but now he knows; it’s Daesung. A transformation is coming and he cannot ignore that no matter how impossible it feels.

Inevitable.

It feels inevitable. Every moment leading up to this one now feel like they could not have happened in any other fashion.

“Daesung. How was your visit with my dear niece?” He asks as Daesung makes it past the pools and continues toward the throne.

The smile on Daesung’s lips is almost teasing, but it’s not something that Seunghyun has ever seen on Daesung’s face. “Ah, she is enlightening, as ever.” He says, and Seunghyun cannot deny that about Chaerin, so just nods.

His keen eyes follow Daesung’s continued walk toward him; even and careful. He doesn’t miss the shiver of the rock around him, or the way the throne shakes just a touch more intensely the closer Daesung gets.

“I have not seen you since last night, will you tell me how you are feeling?” He asks, keeping the rather intense feelings he is always trying to hide soft and carefully concealed.

It’s as though Daesung can feel them, though, so it barely matters that he tries at all. “It is hard to describe. But I can say I don’t regret it.” There’s a pause as the room shakes rather violently around them and Daesung stops only a few feet in front of Seunghyun on his throne. “And I can also say that it was the right thing to do. The right thing for me, the world and…” he tilts his head, innocent eyes seeming to drill into Seunghyun’s. “I think for you as well.”

A bold statement, truly, but Seunghyun just feels a shiver of delight run through him at it and the thought of it. “Ah, my young god, I think…” There’s another violent shake to the room, the agitation of the souls in the pools coming to a head as the room pitches suddenly into darkness.

The blue, flickering lights on the walls gutter completely; the glow from the pools disappears in flickering suddenness. There is a further rumble and then Seunghyun feels the shift and change in the rock beside him.

The violent shaking comes to an end, and only the light tremors and shivers in the rock remain. As the lights flicker back on, Seunghyun looks to his left in a fashion that could be seen as bored but that Daesung now knows to be true interest.

“I think you are very correct.” He says, dark, sparkling eyes finding Daesung again in the slowly lifting darkness.

The shivers in the rock cease and it’s as if they never had been at all. Daesung considers Seunghyun a moment, and then turns his head to the space on the left of Seunghyun and smiles.

Where once there had been just the black rock of the wall, there was now a second throne. It was equally as tall, but differently decorated; leaves and vines and flowers carved into the dark rock. They were not obvious from too far away, the work delicate and fragile like all living things were in comparison to the gods.

There is another moment of silence between them as Daesung makes his way to that throne, fingers skimming over the arm furthest from Seunghyun.

“And you are accepting of it? Of no longer being the single… the sole god of this realm?”

Seunghyun watches, considering him but not considering his answer. “Ruler. I’m now not the sole ruler. And no…” He pauses, like he’s trying to work out how best to explain or tell Daesung this feeling, how this seems to him. “You are just as much a part of Hades, of me, as you are of the world above us, but it’s different. My relationship with Hades, with the souls, is deeply entwined in my being and my abilities. I am the Lord of the Underworld but you? You are a protector of life, a bringer of both life and death.” He shrugs, elegant and small, and Daesung considers him a moment.

“You’re not wrong.” He says, eyes returning to the throne. He turns, then, and settles down upon it, looking out at the great room ahead of them with the glowing pools and the black rock streaked with sparkling gems and stone. “But I don’t think it will ever be so easy as all that. And where do we fit in, together?”

Seunghyun gives him a smile that is stronger than most of the looks he ever deigned to allow to show. “Ah, well, together I think is better, don’t you?”

And for now, for now Daesung leaves it there.

High above them, on Mount Olympus, Zeus allows the transformation, and Demeter must accept it; Daesung was no longer her child, but now a strong and formidable god.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it ends! I like a good ambiguous ending, but this one is definitely more obvious in where it is meant to go. The story is shorter than I think I would have liked, but still I had fun, and I hope you all enjoyed reading about Seunghyun as Hades and Daesung as Persephone ^^

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not the only one who wants to see T.O.P in blue-white lighting, dressed impeccably in a suit, am I?  
> On another note: just a reminder that I can also be found on Tumblr under the completely unhelpful name of: Ancient-Astronaut-Specialist It super sounds like a k-pop blog, I know. Every so often I whine about wanting prompts or ideas, so don't hesitate to reach out ^^


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